Adam Smith, philosopher

Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith was baptized on this day in 1723 in Kircaldy, Fife. We don’t know much about his childhood, but it’s rumored that he was carried off — briefly — by gypsies at the age of four. He was absentminded and eccentric, talking to himself often, suffering from imaginary illnesses, and given to such engrossing daydreams that he occasionally walked out of the house in his nightgown.

Smith entered the University of Glasgow in 1737, at the age of 14. After he graduated, he won a scholarship to Oxford, which he found academically lackluster after the dynamic Scottish Enlightenment atmosphere in Glasgow; he largely taught himself while he was there. He became a professor of logic and, later, moral philosophy at the University of Glasgow, and he considered his time there “by far the happiest and most honourable period of [his] life.” His social circle included a chemist, an engineer, a publisher, several successful merchants, and fellow philosopher David Hume.

Smith published his first book, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in 1759, to general acclaim, but it’s his second, The Wealth of Nations (1776), for which he is chiefly known today. It took him 10 years to write, and in it he posits that the pursuit of individual self-interest will lead, as if by an “invisible hand,” to the greatest good for all. He tended to oppose anything — government or monopolies — that interfered with pure competition; he called his laissez-faire approach “perfect liberty.” He’s been painted by some in recent years as a staunch defender of free market capitalism, supply-side economics, and limited government; other economists argue that this image is somewhat misleading, and that his devotion to the laissez-faire philosophy has been overstated. For example, he had a favorable view of taxes in general and progressive taxes in particular, as he wrote in Wealth of Nations: “The subjects of every state ought to contribute towards the support of the government, as nearly as possible, in proportion to their respective abilities; that is, in proportion to the revenue which they respectively enjoy under the protection of the state. … The rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion.” He did argue, however, that the tax law should be as simple and transparent as possible.

Shortly before his death, he ordered his unfinished manuscripts and personal papers destroyed, as was the custom in his time. Lost to posterity are volumes on law, science, and the arts. His Essays on Philosophical Subjects was published posthumously.
WA